urn:taro:utexas.cah.01701A Guide to the Thomas Mitchell Campbell Papers, 1898-1923Original EAD encoding by Megan Mummey according to TARO 2 EAD 2002 Editing
Instructions. July 2010Finding aid written in English.
Descriptive Summary
Campbell, Thomas MitchellCampbell, Thomas Mitchell,
Papers1898-1923Materials are written in English.19485 in. Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The
University of Texas at AustinCorrespondence, speeches, financial reports, petitions, invitations, court reports,
newspaper clippings, and pamphlets comprise the Thomas Mitchell Campbell Papers,
1898-1923, which document Campbell’s career as an attorney, general manager of the
International-Great Northern Railroad, and governor of Texas.
Biographical Note

Thomas Mitchell Campbell (1856-1923), lawyer, general manager of the
International-Great Northern Railroad, and governor of Texas, graduated from Trinity
University and passed the Texas bar in 1878. He began his practice in Longview,
Texas, in the same year. In 1889, Campbell became master chancery for the
financially distressed International-Great Northern Railroad in Palestine, Texas.
Campbell guided the railroad through its recovery, becoming its general manager in
1891. Distrusting big businesses, Campbell eventually clashed with the railroad’s
owner Jay Gould and left the railroad to resume his law practice in 1897. Campbell,
upon the encouragement of his friend, former governor James S. Hogg, ran for
governor, winning the office in 1906 on an anti-trust platform.

Campbell served as governor for two terms (1907-1911) and affected reforms such as
railroads regulations, anti-trust laws, lobbying restrictions, food and drug
regulations, prison reform, and insurance laws. Furthermore, Campbell helped create
many state agencies, such as the Department of Insurance and Banking, Bureau of
Labor Statistics, State Board of Health, and the Texas State Library. In 1911,
Campbell returned to his private practice, but remained active in politics,
unsuccessfully running for the United States Senate in 1916. Campbell died in
Galveston in 1923.

Correspondence, speeches, financial reports, petitions, invitations, court reports,
newspaper clippings, and pamphlets comprise the Thomas Mitchell Campbell Papers,
1898-1923, which document Campbell’s career as an attorney, general manager of the
International-Great Northern Railroad, and governor of Texas. The papers, composed
mainly of speeches and correspondence, contain speeches given by Campbell during his
various campaigns such as the speech, How to Turn Texas
Loose, which he presented to the 1904 Texas Democratic Convention.

Thomas Mitchell Campbell Papers, 1898-1923, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of
Texas at Austin.

Processing Information

This collection was processed by Angela R. Olivera, February 1980.

Basic processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with funds from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) for the Briscoe Center’s History Revealed: Bringing Collections to Light project, 2009-2011.